Tag: top-stories
2015 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Tim Blake Nelson’s Anesthesia
While TIFF has become film premiere terrain for his last director outings (the horribly timed post 9/11 released The Grey Zone and 2009's Leaves...
2015 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Pamela Romanowsky’s The Adderall Diaries
The perpetually busy James Franco might just begin his 2015 with the Park City launch-padding of (among others) Pamela Romanowsky's directorial debut comes across...
2015 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Mark Elijah Rosenberg’s Ad Inexplorata: Toward the Unknown
An instrumental and influential American independent film promoter/curator/supporter/taste-maker in the business, Rooftop Films creator and artistic director Mark Elijah Rosenberg (pictured above) moves from...
2015 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Bob Byington’s 7 Chinese Brothers
If there is a little Listen Up Philip in the cocktail that will be known as 7 Chinese Brothers, it may have been due to cosmic fate,...
2015 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Marc Silver’s 3½
Gun culture, racism and the court system are revolving themes in docu subject matters and if there is a common thread to find between...
The Theory of Everything | Review
Scenes From a Marriage: Marsh’s Distilled Look at Physicist Stephen Hawking
Spanning twenty five years in their lives together and based on the memoir Travelling...
A Merry Friggin’ Christmas | Review
Blight Christmas: Shapeero’s Debut is Not the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
There’s a reason why Tristram Shapeero’s film debut A Merry Friggin’ Christmas...
Open Windows | Review
Peeping Tom: Vigalondo’s Virtual Voyeurism Thriller Too Wrapped Up in Tech
In the barest possible sense, Nacho Vigalondo’s latest film, Open Windows, can perhaps be...
Viva la Liberta | Review
Dead Ringers: Ando’s Self-Adapted Switcheroo a Highlight for Servillo But Little Else
Politics and doppelgangers have hewn a surprisingly wide berth throughout decades of cinema,...
Penance | Review
Till I Can Get My Satisfaction: Kurosawa’s Striking Psychosexual Marathon
Past traumas hopelessly infecting the present factor significantly in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s monolithic psychosexual thriller, Penance,...
The Better Angels | Review
Edwards Breathes Malickian Verve Into Lincoln's Youth
It's impossible to discuss director A.J. Edwards' triumphant debut without first acknowledging his association with Terrence Malick. Having...
Interview: A.J. Edwards – The Better Angels
It's with good reason that producer Terrence Malick has gotten top billing in the PR campaign for The Better Angels, namely the ethereal tone...
Interview: Frederick Wiseman – National Gallery
Frederick Wiseman could be called a lot of things, but amongst those would surely be the word legend. With his latest feature, National Gallery, the...
Elsa and Fred | Review
Anything Elsa: Radford’s Remake Rough Around the Edges
English director Michael Radford, still best known for earlier works 1984 (1984) and the critical darling...
Interview: Robert Greene & Brandy Burre (Actress)
Having recently been picked up for theatrical distribution by The Cinema Guild, director Robert Greene's latest documentary digs deep into the idea of life as...
Jessabelle | Review
Ring Her Bell: Greutert Steps Outside Franchise For Promising Results
Considering that Jessabelle is directed by editor and eventual director of two Saw films, Kevin...
Interstellar | Review
Don’t Let’s Ask For the Moon: Nolan’s Space Opera for the Ages
At last divorcing himself from the omnipotent shadows of Batman, director Christopher Nolan’s...
Interview: Margaret Brown (The Great Invisible)
She heartbreakingly depicted the demons wrestled by a troubled singer/songwriter in Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt (2005), explored the...
Before I Go To Sleep | Review
Sleep, My Love: Joffe’s Effective Woman in Peril Thriller
Adapting S.J. Watson’s pulpy novel Before I Go to Sleep for his second feature film (2010’s...
Winter in the Blood | Review
Blood Simple: The Smith’s Sophomore Effort a Lyrical, Uneven Production
It’s been well over a decade now since their first film, 2002’s The Slaughter Rule,...
All You Need is Love | Review
Off the Map: Cameron’s Well-Meaning Doc Explores Plight of Displacement
Focusing on the thousands of displaced families and children that languish in poverty around the...
Private Peaceful | Review
Brother to Brother: O’Connor’s Rudimentary Look at Familial Ravages in WWII
His first film since that ill-advised 2001 remake of Sweet November, which sought to...
Best of Fest – Docs: Amy Berg’s An Open Secret Hits DOC NYC, Seung-Jun Yi’s Wind on the Moon Joins IDFA (October ’14)
The falling leaves are a sure sign it’s now the beginning of awards season, with Oscar short lists starting to leak out, IDA Awards...
Nightcrawler | Review
While the City Sleeps: Gyllenhaal Gets His Money Shot in Gilroy’s Debut
You’ll be hard pressed to find a more enjoyably witty criticism of modern...
Goodbye to Language | Review
Breathless Spectacle: Godard's Three Dimensions are Child's Play
A rough-hewn yet mesmerizing appraisal of the modern world presented from a disturbingly dispassionate point-of-view is the latest...
The ABCs of Death 2 | Review
Same Old Song: Scant Few Highlights Justify Lengthy Omnibus
Well, alphabet soup horror is back with The ABCs of Death 2, a follow-up to the...
Laggies | Review
We All Float Down Here: Shelton’s Latest Winning Slice of Arrested Development
Remarkable in the sense that this is her third consecutive film to premiere...
“Safe Keeping”….Exclusive Clip from Erik Poppe’s 1,000 Times Goodnight
In this exclusive clip from Erik Poppe's new film 1,000 Times Goodnight, (Film Movement 10.24) Juliette Binoche's character, Rebecca, is in Kenya on an...
1,000 Times Goodnight | Review
Words and Pictures: Binoche Dominates Poppe’s Familial Drama
Norwegian director Erik Poppe makes his English language directorial debut with 1,000 Times Goodnight, featuring an internationally...
Low Down | Review
Groovin’ High: Hawkes Nuanced Performance Elevates Albany Memoir
Despite taking home the best cinematography prize for Christopher Blauvet (who also provided superb camerawork on Kelly...
White Bird in a Blizzard | Review
Skin Deep: Araki Weathers a 4th Decade in Filmmaking
Gregg Araki’s latest ode to youthful alienation, White Bird in a Blizzard, is his most restrained...
Interview: Hossein Amini (The Two Faces of January)
Continuing in the tradition of Patricia Highsmith's set of globetrotters and vacationing daytrippers who dip their toes not only in foreign backdrops, but in...
What’s Up Doc?: Louie Psihoyos Tops Our *New* Monthly Top 50 Most Anticipated Docs Guide
They often get quite a bit less attention than their fictional brethren, and it doesn’t help that many films fly under the radar while...
John Wick | Review
Who the Hell is John Wick?: Leitch & Stahelski’s Revenge Flick Energetically Entertaining
Against the general mediocre trend of stuntmen turned directors, Chad Stahelski’s unassumingly...
The Heart Machine | Review
Feel It In Your Heart Beat: Wigon’s Debut Explores Jagged, Media-Moderated Romance
Film critic Zachary Wigon makes his directorial and screenwriting debut with The Heart...
Life of Riley | Review
Time to Leave: Alain Resnais’ Elegant Swan Song
Alain Resnais, that reluctant member of the French New Wave, passed away in March of 2014, not...
Stonehearst Asylum | Review
Crazy in Love: Anderson’s Gothic Sprinkled Romance Deserves to be Tarred and Feathered
Fresh off the surprise box office success of 2013’s Halle Berry headlined...
Exists | Review
The Pictures Got Small: Sanchez Unwisely Revisits Found Footage
The co-director of 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, Eduardo Sanchez, returns to the fold of the...
Interview: Gregg Araki – White Bird in a Blizzard
We sat down with director Gregg Araki at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival after the premiere of his new film, White Bird in a...
The Dark Valley | Review
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance: Prochaska’s Grimly Pleasing Revenge Yarn
Selected as Austria’s entry for this year’s Foreign Language Oscar submission, The Dark Valley is perhaps...
We Should Get Inside …. Exclusive Clip for Eduardo Sanchez’s “Exists”
While it comes across as rather unthreatening, the grainy, super 8 footage of the unidentified subject also known as "Bigfoot" shot way back in...
I’m gonna do something … Exclusive Clip for Travis Gutiérrez Senger’s “Desert Cathedral”
The 5th edition of the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland kicks off today, and among the 20 films featured in the competition (it...
Criterion Collection: La Dolce Vita | Blu-ray Review
“The most miserable life is better, believe me, than an existence protected by a society where everything’s organized and planned for and perfect,” says...
Witching & Bitching | Blu-ray Review
Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia returns with Witching and Bitching, a nod to his particular brand of zany, over-the-top genre comedy that marked...
Revenge of the Green Dragons | Review
Dragon Seed: Lau & Loo’s Dissatisfying NYC Chinese Gang Saga
Martin Scorsese appears as executive producer on Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo’s Revenge of...
Fury | Review
This Time, It’s War: Ayer’s Latest Depiction of Men Under Fire
At last leaving behind the pulpy, sometimes overly chewy cop action/dramas he’s been churning...
The Golden Era | Review
A Complicated Life: Hui’s Sprawling Biopic as Malcontented as Its Subject
Hong Kong director Ann Hui’s extensive filmography has been largely unavailable, though she’s steadily...
Summer of Blood | Review
Hemogobble: Turkel’s Latest Assay into Misanthropy
Indie filmmaker Onor Turkel seems determined to remain hilariously unlikeable as his self-effacing, self-directed on-screen alter ego with his...
Felony | Review
Patch of Blue: Saville’s Sophomore Film Lost in Endless Ellipses
For his first film since his 2007 feature debut Noise, Australian director Matthew Saville returns...
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya | Review
Princess from the Moon: Takahata Bows with Feminist Spin on Fable
Following the news of Hayao Miyazaki’s possible retirement after the release of 2013’s The...
